JAB IN THE DARK
Kent Covid strain ‘mutates AGAIN to mimic South African variant – and could resist vaccines’
THE UK Covid strain has acquired a mutation similar to the South African variant - and could resist vaccines, official reports reveal.
Public Health England have detected 11 cases in Bristol where the Kent variant has mutated to “escape” immune response.
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Experts say the “worrying development” means vaccination and natural immunity will prove less effective against these infections if they are allowed to spread.
Laboratory studies have shown that antibodies are less able to bind to a part of the virus known as the spike protein, in order to stop it from unlocking human cells to gain entry.
The mutation, known as E484K, is already present in both South African and Brazilian coronavirus variants.
It was previously thought this mutation was not present in the UK variant, also known as B.1.1.7.
But a recent report published by Public Health England said gene sequencing has shown that the E484K mutation has occurred spontaneously in only a handful of cases of the UK variant.
It comes as:
- Door-to-door testing started in eight postcodes today in race to track every case of the South African Covid variant
- More Covid variants risk entering the UK as quarantine hotels to take WEEKS to start
- Families in South Africa Covid strain testing areas told ‘think again’ before leaving home to buy food
- Boris Johnson snubbed SAGE advice warning ALL travellers must quarantine in hotels to stop mutant strains arriving in UK
- GMB’s Dr Hilary says new South African Covid variant is a ‘great concern’ and warns there will be MORE strains
- Over-65s could start receiving their Covid vaccine invite letters next week after nine million Brits jabbed
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A cluster of 32 cases in Liverpool also have the same mutation but relate to the original strain of coronavirus that has been around since the start of the pandemic.
The South African variant - which also shows the mutation - is under investigation in at least eight postcode areas of England where cases not linked to travel have been found.
A PHE spokesman said: "PHE is monitoring the situation closely and all necessary public health interventions are being undertaken, including enhanced contact tracing and control measures."
Regional PHE officials said the mutation detected in Liverpool was part of cases among staff at Liverpool Women's Hospital last month.
A cluster of an initial five cases was detected on January 10 among some staff who had attended an event outside the hospital, believed to be a funeral.
Extra testing will now be carried out in Bristol and Liverpool following the development, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said today.
Prof Calum Semple, a member of Sage and Nervtag, told BBC Radio 4: "The mutation of most concern, which we call E484K, has also occurred spontaneously in the new Kent strain in parts of the country too."
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Experts warn that the mutation is worrying because it has been shown to reduce the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing people contracting Covd.
Dr Jonathan Stoye, group leader, Retrovirus-Host Interactions Laboratory at The Francis Crick Institute, said: "This suggests that the UK variant is now independently acquiring the E484K change.
"From a virological standpoint, appearance of new variants by mutation during replication cannot be considered surprising.
"Whether this change will provide significant growth advantages for the novel virus causing it to predominate remains to be seen."
This E484K mutation is already present in the South African and Brazilian variants - and is now thought to be the main mutation impacting on vaccine efficacy
Dr Julian Tang
Dr Julian Tang, Honorary Associate Professor at Leicester University, said: “This updated PHE report on the UK variant mentions the acquisition of the E484K mutation - which is a worrying development, though not entirely unexpected.
“This E484K mutation is already present in the South African and Brazilian variants - and is now thought to be the main mutation impacting on vaccine efficacy.
“If this E484K mutation is acquired by most of the UK variants - the recent reassurances from recent studies showing that the mRNA vaccines will still offer optimum protection against the original UK variant - may no longer apply.”
SPONTANEOUS MUTATIONS
Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at University of Reading, said: “Mutations arise spontaneously and thrive if they provide the virus with an advantage.
"In lab studies, this mutation meant that antibodies were less able to bind to the virus’ spike protein in order to stop it from unlocking human cells to gain entry.
"Clinical trials by Novavax and Johnson & Johnson showed that their new vaccines were less effective in South Africa, compared to the UK or USA, and it is presumed that it was because of the high level of virus carrying this E484K mutation.
"While no assessments have yet been made on the effectiveness of the vaccines currently in use in this country, it is entirely possible that their efficacy will be similarly diminished by this mutation.”
VACCINES FOR NEW CORONAVIRUS STRAINS 'CAN BE CREATED IN WEEKS'
Vaccines to tackle new strains of coronavirus could be created for laboratory testing in just three weeks, a leading scientist has said.
Professor Robin Shattock, who is leading Covid-19 vaccine research at Imperial College London, said scientists are working on vaccines which could counter new variants like the one that emerged in South Africa.
After being redesigned for lab testing, it could take two to three months to get the vaccines to the manufacturing stage, he added.
Prof Shattock told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Vaccine researchers around the world to looking at these new variants and making new vaccine candidates against them so we can study in the laboratory.
"And that's quite a fast process - we can go from seeing these changes to making a new vaccine in the laboratory in a period of about three weeks.
"We have one already and we're starting to look at the immune response to that to see whether it makes it more effective against, for example, a South African strain, but also to see whether it can modulate the immune response from somebody who's already had a vaccine to make it more effective as a booster to target these variants as they arise.
"We can we can make these vaccines in the lab in a three-week process but then to actually get them manufactured, that would take two to three months to get to the manufacturing stage and into the clinic - that's still quite fast.
"And we need to remember that more changes may occur but these vaccines won't go from working well to not working at all. So a three-month period to provide an update and develop a boosting strategy is quite effective."
Prof Shattock said a new vaccine could be developed as an "annual booster", adding: "That's an update that then makes the immune response effective against new variants that may arise between now and later in the year."
He said scientists at Oxford University are already working on vaccines that are effective against new variants.
If there is a need to adapt vaccines to tackle new strains then different technologies would take different timeframes to develop as some are more "complex".
"If there is a change and a need to bring something new in, we'll probably see a similar race and different technologies will get there with different timeframes," he added.
The UK strain - called VUI202012/01 - first emerged in Kent in September and has caused cases to surge.
Boris Johnson revealed the variant was found to be 70 per cent more contagious than the original strain.
But there is no evidence to suggest it is more deadly and until now, it was understood that the current vaccines could still offer protection.
It comes after 11 cases of the South African variant with no travel links were detected across England.
A door-to-door testing blitz of 80,000 people is now underway in an attempt to find "every single case" and stop the spread.
Mobile testing units and home testing kits will be deployed to areas where the variant has been discovered.
The eight postcode areas at the epicentre of the intensified testing programme, after 105 cases of the South Africa strain were identified in total, are: Hanwell, west London; Tottenham, north London; Mitcham, south London; Walsall in the West Midlands; Broxbourne, Hertfordshire; Maidstone, Kent; Woking, Surrey; and Southport, Merseyside.
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Public Health England (PHE) is studying whether those who have already had the vaccine could need a booster shot "a bit like the annual flu vaccine" to help protect them against Covid-19 mutations, such as the South Africa, Brazil and Kent variants.
The South African variant is thought to be as transmissible as the variant that was first identified in Kent but there is no evidence yet that it causes more severe disease.
Dr Susan Hopkins from Public Health England (PHE) said three different vaccines trialled so far had shown effectiveness against the South African variant at a level higher than the minimum standard set by the World Health Organisation and the US Food and Drug Administration.
"We expect all other vaccines to have a similar level of effectiveness, particularly in reducing hospitalisation and death," she said, adding that laboratory studies were being carried out to provide further evidence.
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The worry that the South Africa variant was spreading across England came as reports suggested scientists had recommended ministers should have gone harder with their border controls to stop new variants from entering the country.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), according to The Times, said only mandatory hotel quarantines for all arrivals or a total border shutdown would keep mutations at bay.
A week after the advice was reportedly given to the UK Government, the Prime Minister outlined his plan for travellers coming from 30 "red list" countries to face up to 10 days in hotel self-isolation, with no date yet set for when the rules will start to be enforced - proposals lighter than those pushed by Sage.
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